I talk a lot about thoughts, and how they don’t have to matter. This is important because the less attention we give to our thoughts, and the more we learn to train our mind, the bigger the space between thoughts becomes, and the more peace we can find. That peace is our better selves.
Thoughts don’t have to matter, but they are also the most important thing in our lives when we let them run amok.
They determine what it is we are meditating on all the time.
In the Bhagavad Gita this is called one’s “Shraddha”, or “that which is placed in the heart”. The Bible talks about it in Proverbs, “as a man thinketh, so he is”. The Buddha said that “All that we are is a result of what we have thought. We are made of our thoughts, we are molded by our thoughts.” Modern psychology recognizes this as well.
I used to think thoughts were just thoughts, but now it seems almost self-apparent that they are creative agents.
If I am feeling or behaving in a certain way, I can trace the origins back to what I am thinking about, to what I am dwelling on.
We cannot dwell on negativity and anger all the time without there being some kind of effect on who we are.
I cannot allow thoughts of resentment or anger to steep in my mind without them eventually becoming actions.
When thoughts arise we can either feed them or let them come and go without our attention. Rejecting thoughts is the same as feeding them, because we are connected to them by pushing them away (DO NOT think of a basketball right now).
To conceptualize something’s opposite, we are forced to conceptualize that thing.
If thoughts are seeds of behavior, what are you planting right now?
Is it something that will benefit you and the people around you?
Is it good, kind and useful?
What if you planted something different?
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